


Slackers

by keitaiijima



Series: Junior High Moments [6]
Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types, Battle Royale - Takami Koushun
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:42:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25451095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keitaiijima/pseuds/keitaiijima
Summary: Yoshimi Yahagi has to take supplementary classes over the first few weeks of their Third Year Summer holiday. Luckily she’s not alone.Note: This is part of a non-linear series all set in the same universe but can also be definitely read independently.
Relationships: Kuronaga Hiroshi/Yahagi Yoshimi
Series: Junior High Moments [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059632
Comments: 15
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first individual work that is chaptered, and I will try to update as soon as possible, finishing it within a week or two for sure.  
> It's also my first time writing Yoshimi's POV so I hope it's alright! 
> 
> It's rated Teens and up for language.

_Worst. Summer. Ever.  
_It was the summer break following the first semester of their third year, and the break already sucked. Closing ceremonies had taken place only the previous day, but Yoshimi Yahagi knew school was far from over for her yet. As most of her classmates started going off on their holidays or spending lazy Summer days with their friends (this included her own little group of girls, Hirono Shimizu and Mitsuko Souma), Yoshimi was stuck starting Summer classes for “lagging students”. Yoshimi had no idea how Hirono and Misuko had avoided this, though clearly they did better on their examinations tan she had really expected. Yoshimi herself had felt too short on time between her friends, family and boyfriend, and thus had hardly opened any textbook this whole first semester.  
Not to mention, skipped quite a lot of class.  
And now, what should have been the perfect Summer was suffering because of it.

There were not enough students in these extra classes to really separate them by different years, so 7th to 9th grade were all lumped in a room together. Yoshimi did not even recognize most of the students, and assumed the majority were younger than her. That made sense, as they probably did not care much about their studies yet (if they ever would).  
However, Yoshimi did at least locate one vaguely familiar face. It was the short one in the Kiriyama Family, who was currently sitting at the very back of the classroom, right by the windows. He had his arms crossed, a slightly annoyed expression on his face as he glared out into the courtyard. Yoshimi wanted to go sit down next to him, but she felt kind of award as she had completely forgotten his name right now.  
_It’s not my fault, he’s totally anonymous!_

She knew it was something similar to Yoji’s name, as he immediately followed him on the class list, but…  
_Oh, right! I finally remember!  
_Smiling brightly, Yoshimi made her way over to him, pulling out the chair at the desk next to his.  
“Hii! Kurosawa-kun! Can I sit here?” she asked cheerfully.  
She really did not want to look like some loner or anything. Hiroshi turned his head towards her, his brows furrowed as he only looked more annoyed than before.  
“It’s… Oh, fuck it. Yeah, whatever!” he answered shortly, huffing.

  
Yoshimi would have questioned why he was so grumpy, if the answer did not seem so obvious. She figured he was angry about being stuck there too.  
She went on to try to make some conversation.  
“Soo, Kurosawa-kun –“ she noticed he flinched a little but just shrugged it off. “- None of your friends were asked to come here? Like… No offence to them, but that’s kinda hard to believe, isn’t it?”  
Hiroshi scoffed.  
“Yeah! Ryu was s’posed to fuckin’ be here! I asked last night if we were gonna just fuck off ‘n not bother but he said he’d come! Liar…” he complained, his eyes going back to the courtyard, making Yoshimi realize he was trying to keep a lookout to see if Ryuhei Sasagawa showed up eventually.  
“Hmm… That’s rude of him to just ditch you! Like, I’d be super annoyed! I don’t know how we’re the only ones here from our class, there’s no way we’re the dumbest ones, right?! This is totally unfair! Hayashida-sensei just hates me because he hates anything cute! Have you seen his vests lately…”  
Yoshimi started going on about Hayashida’s fashion sense, which Hiroshi could not care less about, yet he did glance curiously over at her.

“Maybe. I know _I’m_ here ‘cause I f’got we had that dumbass history exam so I didn’t show up, and then I started that fire in science class the next day. It was an accident though, for real!” Hiroshi explained him still, his tone still slightly annoyed. “And I guess I ain’t done too well in any other class either…”  
Yoshimi snickered, covering her mouth as she noticed the teacher had entered too.  
“The fire was kinda hilarious though, riiight?” she whispered, leaning closer to him across her own desk. “Did you see the look on Tachibana-sensei’s face? She couldn’t believe it! And then Tsukioka-kun used the fire to light his cigarette? _Wooow_.”  
Hiroshi finally let out a laugh too, but unlike Yoshimi, he was unable to do it quietly.  
“Fuck yeah, Zuki’s a legend. And the whole thing was fuckin’ hysterical! The teachers here as so damn uptight-“  
As if on cue, the teacher responsible for the supplement classes cleared her throat loudly, signalling with a stern expression for Hiroshi to quiet down.

“Now, class. There’s a very good reason why all of you are here. And it is _not_ to mess around!” she said, still with her eyes on the back of the class for a moment, before letting them wander across all the students. “You have fallen behind in your school work, and that is no laughing matter. We will go through the basics of language and math together, and for the second part of class, you will be split into teams according to year, for a more in-depth tutoring session based on your current curriculum. I will be bringing in some assistants for that portion of the class. Got it?”  
The class responded with silence, and Yoshimi could tell they all hated being there just as much as she did. She sighed deeply.  
  
“My name is Kaeda-sensei, and I will be head of these classes for the next two weeks. I know that with dedication and hard work, there is no reason why all of you should not be able to not only improve your grades enough to get by, but actually do pretty well.”  
_That’s optimistic,_ Yoshimi immediately thought. Even with hard work, she would be lucky if she got a C. She assumed. She had never really tried since maybe the first semester of their first year. Before she got involved with her clique.  
She thought she could hear Hiroshi mutter something under his breath.  
“Hmm?” she asked, blinking to him. Hiroshi glanced at her.  
“Nothin’. Just pissed Ryu really ain’t showin’ up,” he mumbled, as the Kaeda-sensei began doing the attendance. Yoshimi could understand his frustration; she was kind of pissed that Hirono was not there, too. Not that Hirono had been _asked_ to be there…

“Maybe he just slept in or something. He could still come…” Yoshimi whispered, hoping to better his mood somewhat. Hiroshi shrugged, not really looking convinced.  
The teacher had reached the third years, and was reading a couple of names that Yoshimi assumed was class A. Then, she called out:  
“Kuronaga Hiroshi-kun!”, to which Hiroshi grunted in respond, waving his hand lazily.  
  
_Kuronaga…_ Yoshimi squeezed her eyes shut, cringing as she realized she had referred to him by the wrong name at least twice.  
_Greaaat. Now my new best friend in this class – my **only** friend actually! – probably totally hates me for sure!_  
“Kuronaga-kun…” she repeated quietly, biting her lip as she did not look over at him. “I knew that, I just… Wanted to like, see if _you_ knew…”  
Hiroshi let out a small laugh for the second time.  
“Hello? Any Yahagi Yoshimi-san?” Kaeda-sensei called out, making Yoshimi realize she was about to be marked as absent despite actually bothering to show up.  
“Ooh! Sorry! I’m here, I’m here! Hii!” she quickly responded; her voice shrill as she stretched her arm high in the air.

“You sound like a damn nerd,” Hiroshi whispered at her enthusiasm. Yoshimi would have been insulted, but she picked up on his tone being somewhat playful, which made her snicker instead.  
“I wish I was. Then I wouldn’t be here,” she pointed out, leaning her chin down onto her hand and preparing herself for six hours of boredom.  
Hiroshi considered this, staring straight ahead and pretending for once to pay attention to what the teacher was saying.  
“Don’t think the nerds, like Motobuchi or whatever, are up to anythin’ cool even if they ain’t here,” he commented, chuckling. “Probably too busy readin’. Maybe even just for… fun. That’s a fuckin’ sad existence!”

Yoshimi managed to hide her giggling in her palm, not able to comprehend how someone’s life could suck _that much._  
“What would you be doing if we weren’t here? Like… Does your friends have plans and stuff?” she whispered, pulling out her notebook and pencil case, just because she saw the students in front of her doing the same. The teacher was writing down some basic math formulas on the blackboard, but Yoshimi’s brain was automatically blocking out whatever she was actually saying.  
  
Hiroshi had pulled out his supplies too, but were drawing tiny black circles instead of copying down what was actually on the blackboard.  
“Dunno… Drink, prolly. Smoke in the park. Hang out at that small coffee shop place. Not like the lame one with the creamy coffee drinks, but the one by the corner near the train station. And I guess we’d go into town to hang too, maybe pick up some goods…” he began listing, and Yoshimi listened, interested. She had never considered what the Kiriyama Family actually did for fun, but it sounded about right.  
“How ‘bout you?” he asked, looking up at her while still doodling onto his notebook.

“We were gonna go to the _beaaaach_! And the mall, because I wanna just shoop. And yeah, have like drinks at Hirono’s place because her mom don’t mind if we drink in the house, and then go out because we know a place where they don’t ID you! Oh my good, you guys should come once!” Yoshimi rambled enthusiastically, nodding her head as she spoke.  
Hiroshi looked confused by the invitation, like he did not know if she meant it or if she was just making small-talk, and he nodded slowly.  
“Yeah… Maybe… -“

  
“- And I was gonna spend _soo_ much time with Yo-chan!” Yoshimi continued, sighing heavily. “We were totally gonna convince our parents to let us rent a cabin or something in their name and they would drive us up and it would be the most romantic weekend eveeer. I guess we can still do that, after these stupid classes…”  
Hiroshi scrunched his nose, looking grossed out by the idea of a romantic weekend.  
“Huh. Fun,” he said dryly, sounding like it was the least fun thing he ever heard. He looked like he was about to add to that, but decided against it, returning his gaze to his doodling.

  
As class progressed, Yoshimi honestly did not think it could get any _more_ boring than maths, but Kaeda-sensei really had a way of making Languages dry as a bone. Yoshimi heard some background noise about comparative and superlative adjectives, but the more bored she got, the less she was able to take anything in.  
_Yo-chan’s going to the beach with his dumbass friends tomorrow… I just know Niida is gonna look at all the hot girls and point them out to him and get him to look too, and maybe he will find this super sexy female bodyguard who he will run away with or…  
  
_“Yo, Yahagi. You’re ‘bout to miss out on progressive and perfect tense,” Hiroshi mumbled, having clearly spotted she was completely zoned out. Yoshimi blinked, frowning.  
“On _what_?” she asked, none of those words meaning anything to her.  
Hiroshi grinned. “Yeah, man, exactly. If you fall asleep, you’ll never fuckin’ find out. What a damn tragedy, right?”  
Yoshimi gave him a slight smile back.  
“Yeah. That’d be like, a total shame,” she joked, wondering why he bothered to remind her to pay attention, other than the fact that maybe he figured if he was suffering through this, she should too.

And Yoshimi tried, she really did. If she had understood correctly, they only had about an hour left before being split up into groups based on their years. She wanted to at least focus for that last hour. However, she sometimes found she could focus better if she also did something else at the same time. Discretely, hoping Kaeda-sensei would not notice anything, she pulled a small bottle of nail polish out from her bag.

Hiroshi frowned as he saw the bottle, looking curious.  
“What’s that?” he whispered.  
Yoshimi gave him a look of disbelief. “Uhmmm? _Nail polish_? Come on, Kurosa- Kuronaga-kun, you _must_ have seen nail polish before?!”  
“Duuh, of fuckin’ course I have! But your bottle is all weird and shit. It doesn’t look like the kind Zuki puts on sometimes,” Hiroshi defended himself.  
Yoshimi looked down at her bottle. It was a gold Dior bottle, and she supposed the shape was not immediately recognisable, at least for a boy. It was quite expensive; she would never have been able to afford it with her allowance, so it was one of the many small products she sometimes happened to drop into her bag when visiting cosmetic stores.

Looking up at Hiroshi with a teasing smile, she leaned closer.  
“Does he ever paint _your_ nails?” she wondered, using the bottle to nudge his shoulder. Hiroshi pouted and waved her hand away.  
“Fuck no! I ain’t gay like him!” he protested.  
Yoshimi giggled quietly.  
“It’d be soo pretty though. Can _I_ paint yours?” she continued teasing, to Hiroshi’s dismay.  
“Fuck off! Never!” he responded, his voice a little louder. However, Yoshimi abruptly noticed his expression change, and his face fell slightly.

“What are you two doing?” a harsh voice suddenly asked from Yoshimi’s right side. Yoshimi bit her bottom lip, turning her head to look up at Kaeda-sensei, who was standing above her with her arms crossed.  
“Ohhh. Uuuhm. Nothing? Maths? No, I mean… Perfect tense verbs?” she tried to save herself, with very limited luck.  
“I think you both seem quite distracted. If I hear one more peep, I will separate you and put you on opposites ends of the classroom. And for now, I will be taking this. This is _not_ a makeup class,” she snapped, snatching the nail polish out of Yoshimi’s small hand.

Yoshimi gasped quietly as Kaeda-sensei walked back to her desk, carelessly tossing the nail polish bottle into her drawer.  
“My dior!” she whined, wanting nothing but to save it.  
“What a bitch,” Hiroshi mumbled, shaking his head. “She fuckin’ stole from you!”  
Well, it was already stolen by Yoshimi in the first place, but she still nodded dramatically in agreement.  
“I _knooow_. I can’t believe it! And that’s like, totally expensive too! She is probably gonna find an excuse to keep it for herself!”

Hiroshi shook his head. “Nah. We won’t let her! And, we’ll get back at her for takin’ it at all. We’ll think of somethin’,” he said thoughtfully.  
Yoshimi blinked, kind of surprised by his determination. She had assumed (unbeknownst to her, _correctly_ ) that he never really came up with any schemes within the gang. At least none anyone listened to. Now, he seemed like he was actually trying to figure out some form of vengeance.  
“We will?” she asked, her tone hopeful.  
“Fuck yeah,” Hiroshi confirmed with a nod. “If we’re gonna be stuck her for two weeks, we gotta have some fun. And what’s more fun than messin’ with an enemy?!”  
He grinned to her, seemingly getting more excited, which made Yoshimi break out into a smile of her own.

 _Ooh, weird,_ Yoshimi thought. _Maybe this Summer could get totally interesting after all…_


	2. The Assistant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reinforcements are brought in to help with the supplementary classes, but it only fuels more plans for revenge.

Yoshimi was a bit nervous to scheme too obviously with Hiroshi for the rest of that class, as she wondered what Kaeda could take away from her next.  
_My lipstick? My nail file? My rings? Kaeda-sensei, I won’t have more to giiiive,_ she thought dramatically, staring at the teacher with an exaggerated pout.  
Luckily the maths class was almost over, and they were about to be separated into their smaller groups according to their years.

Kaeda welcomed six teacher’s assistant that would help her out for this portion of the day. Now, at least their question about what nerds like Motobuchi were up to was answered; Kyoichi Motobuchi was one of the assistants introduced, and he looked absolutely exasperated when his eyes fell upon Hiroshi.  
“Wooow. Do you guys have beef or something?” Yoshimi whispered to the boy. “Did you shove him into a locker or some crap like that?”  
Hiroshi laughed loudly, pleased with himself. “Nah. But remember that fire in science class? Some of it might have, y’know, fuckin’ spread to his sleeve and shit. Still by accident, I swear!”

Yoshimi tried and failed not to giggle too loudly, her eyes glancing back at Motobuchi. He sure did look like whatever he was getting paid to be there, was no longer worth it. He leaned in to quietly tell Kaeda something, but she only shook her head shortly in return to him. His lips tightening, Motobuchi made his way to the back of the class, clearing his throat briefly once he stopped by Yoshimi’s desk.  
“Yahagi-san, Kuronaga-kun,” he said coldly. “As I am your classmate, I will be responsible for your personal tutoring. We will have Matsumoto-kun and Sakurai-kun from class C with us too. Class A have a slightly larger group, so their own representative will –“  
“- We don’t fuckin’ care!,” Hiroshi groaned, leaning back on the chair with his arms resting behind his head. “Can we do it outside or somethin’? It’s all sunny!”  
Yoshimi silently agreed she did not care who were assisted by whom, and that soaking up he sun a little sounded like a great plan.  
  
Motobuchi clearly disagreed, as he wrinkled his nose and huffed.  
“Certainly not. This is not a kindergarten class! And perhaps the two of you need to take it more seriously, if you want to amount to anything after we graduate next year. Or rather, if you want to _graduate_ next year.”  
Yoshimi gasped, insulted, even though she knew he had a point. Hiroshi looked like he tried to decide if he should be insulted or not, as he squinted to their class President.  
“D’ya wanna fight?!” he finally snapped, concluding that yes, Motobuchi should not talk to him like that.  
Adjusting his glasses, Motobuchi shook his head. “No, I would rather not. The only thing I want to fight is your lack of motivation and your poor test results.”

Yoshimi and Hiroshi exchanged a glance, wondering if this was another insult or if he was being genuine. The way he talked, like some kind of odd, robotic wind-up toys, made it hard for Yoshimi to understand his tone.  
“Why are you even here, Motobuchi-kun? Do they pay you?!” she asked instead, curious as to how anyone, even a nerd, could _choose_ to stay in school during Summer.  
“Technically, no,” Motobuchi responded. “I get extra credit. So it will definitely pay off in the end, anyway.”  
“ _Wooow_ ,” Yoshimi exclaimed sarcastically, her eyes widening slightly. _What a nerd._ Motobuchi gave something resembling a smile, as he nodded.  
“Yes, thank you. It’s a good arrangement.”  
_Why is he thanking me like that? I don’t remember giving him a compliment…_

Motobuchi got them to join the two students from class C, turning their desks together to create a small working place. Apparently, he had mapped out their individual learning needs with Kaeda, Hayashida and class C’s homeroom teacher Sato.  
“Yahagi-san, for you, we will undoubtedly focusing mostly on maths,” he said matter-of-factly, adjusting his glasses. “Kuronaga-kun, for you… Everything. Where is Sasagawa-kun? As far as I can tell, you need the same amount of help. Desperately…” he kept talking, not looking up from his notes.

“I’m totally kickin’ his ass after school,” Hiroshi muttered under his breath, so that only Yoshimi could hear. She smiled, not about to comment on it, before an idea suddenly hit her.  
“Or,” she whispered back to him. “Maybeee we could find a way to like, totally include him in our revenge on Kaeda-sensei? Wouldn’t it be totally awesome to get the nerd in trouble too?”  
Hiroshi looked at her, almost stunned for a second, processing this. Then he gave her an impressed smirk.  
“Yeah?! Like how?! It’d be great if we got him to like, accidentally punch her in the face,” he mused.  
Yoshimi shook her head, rolling her eyes as this suggestion.  
“How could that _ever_ happen?! No, no punching! It has to be more like… subtle or crap like that. We have to like, frame him…,” she said thoughtfully. Her eyes searching the classroom, she tried to look for anything – tools, props, devices – that could be used to pull off a perfect prank. The problem was, whilst she did join in on shoplifting with her friends or some more dubious activities Mitsuko had arranged for them, Yoshimi did not really plan any schemes herself. She figured it was the same for Hiroshi; he seemed more like a follower too, or at the very least someone who only acted out of impulse, _not_ careful planning.  
  


_Wait. I kindaaa have something. But I’ll have to wait until tomorrow… I just hope…  
_“Motobuchi-kun?” Yoshimi spoke up, interrupting him explaining to Sakurai why multiplying something with zero still just equals zero. “Will you be here tomorrow too?”  
“Yes, I will be here every day until the competition of the supplementary classes,” Motobuchi confirmed swiftly. A bit more suspicious, he added: “Why?”  
Yoshimi shook her head, smiling brightly. “I just like, totally think you explain everything in such a greaat way. Much better than Kaeda-sensei. So having you here is like, an aweome bonus. Really helpful!” she lied.  
Still not looking too convinced at this explanation, Motobuchi gave her a brief nod.  
“Hm. Good. I’ll get around to you soon,” he said, before returning his attention to Sakurai.  
  


“Why are ya suckin’ up to him?!” Hiroshi whispered, leaning closer. Yoshimi giggled.  
“Because I have an idea, but, we can’t do it until tomorrow. I need to bring stuff! But he’s gonna be in soo much trouble,” she whispered back.  
“Does it involve Kaeda-sensei? ‘Cause if not, I got a great revenge plan for her!” Hiroshi said, glancing towards the teacher, who just happened to be staring right back at the two of them. He quickly averted his eyes, looking back at Yoshimi instead. “Drawing pins on the chai-“  
“-No! Kuronaga-kun!” Yoshimi whined, smacking his arm softly. “Nothing so lame! We’re better than this!”

They whispered back and forth, trying to come up with an idea on how to get back on their teacher, and when Motobuchi shushed them, they instead began writing their suggestions down on their notebooks. At least Motobuchi seemed to think they were really working on their tasks now.  
Yoshimi noted that most of Hiroshi’s suggestions seemed to include either fire, or throwing eggs at her. Yoshimi’s suggestions were more in the tone of _“I’ll find out where she lives and go seduce her husband”._  
Needless to say, nothing definite came from their brainstorming. At least it had made time pass relatively quickly, because Kaeda called out for their attention before Yoshimi realized what time it was.

“Alright, everyone. Good job today! We will meet at the same time and place tomorrow. Remember to read the chapters I have written down on the blackboard and answer the questions at the end of each chapter. We will go through them together first thing tomorrow,” Kaeda said, pointing to the blackboard.  
“Homework?! In Summer?! Ain’t havin’ to come here bad enough?!” Hiroshi exclaimed, throwing himself dramatically onto his desk. Yoshimi could totally relate.  
“I know?! I was gonna have some romantic time with Yo-chan later and now he’s gonna help me with homework instead?” she complained, sighing.  
Hiroshi snorted, wrinkling his nose in slight disgust. “Lame,” he mumbled, without looking at her.  
Laughing, Yoshimi stood up and gathered her things. She threw her bag over her shoulder and gave him a soft nudge.”  
“Don’t be all jealous! You’ll get a girlfriend or whatever sometime too. Maybe when you grow a little…” she teased. Hiroshi immediately turned red, shoving her back, though without any force.  
“Hey! I’m still taller than ya!” he insisted. Which was true, but not much of a victory, as Yoshimi was quite petitie.  
“By like, a centimetre or two…” Yoshimi joked, waiting for him to gather his belongings too so they could walk out together.

“Whatever!” Hiroshi grunted, hurrying up once he seemed to realize Yoshimi was actually waiting for him. “So, are ya ever gonna fill me in on the plan for tomorrow?!”  
Yoshimi glanced around; Kaeda had gathered the assistants at the front of the classroom, where they were all now standing around her desk, seemingly going through the details of how they felt the first class had gone. She noticed Motobuchi did not look too pleased.  
“Sure…” she said quietly, as she and Hiroshi began making their way towards the door. “But not here, ‘kay? We have to get until we get like… Out of the school yard! It’s pretty juicy stuff!”  
Hiroshi looked intrigued, making Yoshimi almost nervous. She thought it was the kind of plan Mitsuko might have approved of, but she was not too sure if that was a completely good thing.  
  


The two of them stopped by the school’s gate, and Yoshimi pulled on Hiroshi’s arm to draw him closer.  
“This might be like… A little out there, ‘kay? So you gotta tell me if it’s too far or too crazy in any way!” she began, looking at him intently to make sure he understood that she wanted his honest opinion.  
Hiroshi nodded eagerly. “Fuck yeah! ‘Course. Just tell me already!”  
Leaning in, Yoshimi began whispering in his ear, and it did not take long before Hiroshi burst out laughing.  
“’The fuck?! Yahagi, that’s fuckin’ genius. Motobuchi’s gonna get into so much shit! Ya think he might even get expelled?!”  
His reaction encouraged her, making her feel almost proud. “I dunnoo… I just want to get back at him for like, insin… Instituting… No… For saying we’re like, stupid!”  
  
Grinning, Hiroshi looked like he actually could not wait to be back in school tomorrow. Then, his expression changed into a more puzzled one.  
“Yo, Yahagi…” he said, scratching the side of his face. “Kaeda didn’t give ya your nail shit back, did she?”  
Yoshimi gasped, realizing he was right. “Oh, hell no! Now it’s war!” she fumed, about to turn back around before she realized…  
“Acually… This could totally work as part of my plan! It’s actually kinda perfect! As long as she doesn’ take it home tonight or anything…”  
Hiroshi looked confused, not quite connecting how everything would tie together, but Yoshimi grabbed his hands in hers and gave him a reassuring nod.

  
“Trust me, Kuronaga-kun! It’s gonna work great with the Motobuchi-thing!” she insisted brightly. Hiroshi’s eyes glanced down at their intervened hands, and Yoshimi thought it seemed like his cheeks turned a little pink.  
“Err. Yeah. ‘Kay. If ya say so,” he responded, pulling his hands back and shoving hem into his pockets.  
“I do! I gotta run meet up with Yo-chan, but I’m super excited for tomorrow now. See you at 9!” Yoshimi beamed to him, turning around and heading off in the opposite direction before he had time to say much.  
“Yeah. Me too,” Hiroshi mumbled, long after she was out of earshot, before he too started walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, Motobuchi, it won't be worth the extra credit.


	3. The Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yoshimi and Hiroshi execute their revenge on Motobuchi.

The following day, Yoshimi was certainly more excited about their supplementary classes than she had been the day before. This time, she arrived before Hiroshi did, and sat down at their seats near the back, but took the window-seat for herself. She waved him over as he walked in.  
“Kuronaga-kun! Come, come!” she called out happily, the excitement obvious in her voice.

Hiroshi was quick to join her, kicking over a chair on the way so that it bumped into the kid on the desk next to it. Yoshimi snickered; the boy sure had an easy way of entertaining himself.  
“Yo,” he greeted, throwing his bag down onto the floor, and taking a seat. He leaned back on it, hands behind his head, sending every signal that he could not care less about this class. “Are ya, y’know… Ready for later?!”

Yoshimi nodded eagerly. She pointed to her own bag; she had brought a bigger one than she did yesterday, as it was now containing several new items. All vital to The Plan.   
“Yeah, I totally am! We just need to make it through this first lame part, until Motobuchi joins –“  
“- And then we fuckin’ strike!” Hiroshi finished the sentence for her, laughing wildly. “Fuck! He’s sure gonna regret… Err… Wait, why are we doin’ this shit ‘gain?”  
“He called us stupid or something! He was being an ass!” Yoshimi reminded him, huffing. “Oh, we just need to think of a way to distract Kaeda-sensei too, to get into her drawer…”

Hiroshi shook his head, grinning.   
“Nah, I got it. I had the best idea last night!” he insisted. Yoshimi was a bit hesitant to blindly trust his idea, but they had no time to go into details before Kaeda welcomed the class to another day.  
“Sure,” Yoshimi whispered, biting her bottom lip. “You’re like, totally sure it will work, right? I don’t wanna get busted!”  
“Don’t worry, Yahagi. Do I look like a guy who screws up plans and shit?” Hiroshi whispered back. This did nothing to reassure her, but she nodded nonetheless.  
 _It's not like I got any real idea… I guess I gotta trust him…_

Like the previous day, Kaeda went on for hours and hours. Yoshimi tried hard not to fall asleep; she was too worried Kaeda would confiscate more of her makeup if she brought It out, so instead she watched the blackboard blankly, resting her chin on her hand.  
“Sasagawa-kun really isn’t gonna show up at all? Is that like, an option? The school’s cool with that?” she whispered to Hiroshi, hoping that some small-talk could pass the time.  
Hiroshi snorted, and as Yoshimi glanced over, she realized he was putting small pieces of something into his mouth, chewing it quietly. She watched for a moment, until it hit her he was tearing off pieces of a boiled egg, that he had hidden in his pencil case.  
 _Eww_ , she thought, averting her eyes quickly. _He’s suuuch a weirdo!_

“Dunno if the school gives a fuck or not. Ryu doesn’t seem to, so… What’re they gonna do? Kidnap him?!” Hiroshi whispered back in between chewing.  
“No, but like, maybe not let him start back again in August without passing or something?” Yoshimi mumbled back. If just skipping these classes were an option, she would have chosen that in a heartbeat.  
Hiroshi shrugged. “Dunno if he thinks that far. I think he’s sorta pissed Mitsuru magically managed to pass the last three exams b’fore the break anyway. Dunno what the hell happened there, we were all doin’ so bad…” he said thoughtfully, shoving another piece of egg into his mouth. He was getting a bit careless with chewing quietly, and Yoshimi worried Kaeda would get suspicious of them soon.  
“Don’t you wanna save your egg for lunch or something?” she asked, side-eyeing him ever so slightly.  
“Don’t worry, I got two more for lunch. Fuck, ya think I don’t come prepared?!” Hiroshi laughed, causing Yoshimi to giggle too.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, it was time for the assistants to be brought in again. Yoshimi felt a little nervous, worried how executing a plan without Hirono or Mitsuko there to help would really go. But Hiroshi just looked eager and ready, giving her a thumbs up from underneath his desk.  
“So, if ya go ask Kaeda for help like, in thirty minutes, I’ll get the distraction set up ‘n shit, ‘kay?” he mumbled to her, right in time as Motobuchi joined them only a second later.   
Yoshimi gave him a small nod. She turned to Motobuchi, smiling innocently.  
“Hi, Motobuchi-kun! Thanks for like, helping out again today!” she beamed. God, being nice to nerds was exhausting, but might as well try not to be suspicious.

However, if anything, the bright smile made Motobuchi _more_ suspicious.  
“Yes, of course. Certainly. Shall we get started…”  
Matsumoto and Sakurai joined there little circle again, and Yoshimi tapped her fingers impatiently as Motobuchi guided them all through grammatical rules. She noticed his leather school bag was placed by the side of his chair. She kicked her own bag a tiny bit closer, so she would be ready for later. She still did not know the details of Hiroshi’s distraction, which meant she did not know how much time she had.

She noticed Hiroshi was staring at her, and blinked. He gave her a little nod, which she returned. She figured it must be a signal to get started.  
“Uhmm. I’m just gonna ask Kaeda-sensei if I can go pee!” she said, standing up swiftly, her chair almost falling over. “I’ll be right back!”  
“Yes, very well. You don’t have to announce it like that…” Motobuchi said, adjusting his glasses. Yoshimi gave him a stiff smile, hurrying over to Kaeda.  
  
“Sensei,” she greeted her sweetly. “I was just wondering if I-“  
Whatever Hiroshi had in mind, he sure was quick to execute it because Yoshimi did not even get her first sentence out before she heard small gasps and screams from the back of the classroom.  
“Sensei! It’s a fire!” someone called out, pointing to a small flame at the bottom of the curtain near her own window seat.  
 _Of course there’s a fire,_ Yoshimi thought, trying to stare at Hiroshi to communicate that maybe he went _a tiny bit_ overboard with this distraction, but the boy was too busy watching the flame with put-on concern anyway. The concern on his face was so over-the-top fake that Yoshimi was surprised no one spotted it, but they were all too busy freaking out anyway.  
“Don’t worry, calm down. I got this, it’s not a big one,” Kaeda quickly responded to the situation, making a detour to pick up the fire extinguisher by the door, then beelining to the back of the room to put the small flame out.

Yoshimi knew it was now or never, opening the drawer quickly, and immediately recognising the nail polish Kaeda had stolen from her yesterday. She snatched it up and clutched it in her hands, looking up to make sure no one had seen her. As expected, everyone had gathered around the almost dead flame; some trying to investigate what had caused it. Hiroshi looked as confused and innocent as ever.  
 _I hope he knows he looks like such a prime suspect, being right next to that and all…_  
Yoshimi would not be surprised if he had not really thought that through.

She slowly made her way back to her group, who luckily were still distracted. As subtly as she could, she opened Motobuchi’s bag with her foot (luckily, he had not closed it properly, but only put the top part of it down), and quickly dropped the nail polish into it. Not finished yet, she dodged down to grab a few items from her own bag, pulling out what she had left at the very top of It to have easy access to; a photograph of her that Yoji had taken from a distance one, a lock of her hair, and a pair of hot pink panties she had bought yesterday (used ones would have just been _too gross_ ). She tossed them all into Motobuchi’s bag, closing the top with her foot again.

“What happened?!” she asked the group, making them aware of presence.  
“A fucking fire!” Matsumoto exclaimed, seemingly very excited. Kaeda sighed.  
“The curtain seemed to have caught fire somehow. This hand mirror was next to it, and with the window open, the strong sun today might have actually caused the flame to be lit. It’s a weird coincidence, but…”  
Shaking her head, Kaeda turned to Yoshimi. “Is this yours, Yahagi-san? I know it’s your seat.”  
She held out a small purple mirror, which looked undamaged. Yahagi squinted. She knew it was not hers, of course, but it did look vaguely familiar. If she bothered to think much more about it, she might have eventually recognised it as the mirror Sho Tsukioka often used to check his hair. But she did not.

“No, I swear! Maybe someone forgot it from another class?” she offered as an explanation.  
Kaeda nodded, keeping the mirror to herself. “Maybe.” Louder, she spoke up to everyone.  
“Alright, class! Everything is fine now, and you can return to your study groups,” she encouraged, clapping her hands together to restore some peace and quiet amongst the now chattering students.   
She returned her attention to Yoshimi again.  
“Yahagi-san, what were you wondering earlier?”  
“Oh! I was going to ask to use the bathroom, but I forgot to bring my tampon, so I came back for it!” Yoshimi said brightly, picking her bag up. The boys around the table all cringed, pretending not to have heard that.   
“Of course you may,” Kaeda confirmed, with a small laugh. “Just be quick about it.”  
  


Yoshimi placed her bag on the table, beginning to rummage through it on the search for the non-existent tampon.  
“If ya throw a tampon in my face, we’re not bros anymore,” Hiroshi grumbled, clearly dreading what could possibly happen next. Yoshimi glared at him.  
“I’m not looking for one! Come ooon,” she whispered, rolling her eyes. Louder, she spoke up, making her voice tremble in a way that always worked on Yoji when she wanted to get her way.  
“S-Sensei? Can you please come here?” she called out to Kaeda, furrowing her brows in concern.  
Kaeda, who had just returned to her desk a moment earlier, got up to join the group again. It was only day 2, but Yoshimi thought she already looked a bit worn out.  
“What is going on, Yahagi-san?” she asked patiently.

Yoshimi took a deep breath.  
“I… I’m gonna go to the beach later with my friends, right? So like, I packed a change of clothes and stuff in my bag. And… I know I packed it, Sensei, I _know_ it! But my… My panties are gone! Someone took them!”   
Her lips quivered as she looked at Kaeda with big eyes. Kaeda looked back at her, stunned.  
“Yahagi-san, that’s… That’s crazy. I’m sure you just forgot… No one would have taken them…”  
“Yeah, not like we’re all a bunch of delinquents or anythin’, huh?” Hiroshi remarked from his seat, earning a look from both Yoshimi and Kaeda. He quickly added. “Wait! I didn’t fuckin’ take them! Ya can search my bag and shit. Maybe ya should do that with everyone?!”

Kaeda shook her head. “I don’t actually have the authority to… -“  
“- W-Well, if no one has anything to hide, then… There’s no problem in just showing us, right?” Yoshimi interrupted her, glancing at all four boys around her table. Her high-pitched voice had grown louder, and drawn the attention of the nearby students as well, who were now watching curiously.   
Hiroshi was the first one to open up his bag, pouring the contents out onto his desk. One of his remaining eggs almost rolled off it and onto the floor, but he managed to catch it with a surprisingly graceful movement.  
“See! Nothin’! How ‘bout ya guys?!” he asked, looking at Matsumoto, Sakurai and Motobuchi.

Matsumoto and Sakurai exchanged slightly confused glances, but opened up their bags to show the contents. Nothing exciting, except Yoshimi did note Sakurai was carrying around a package of condoms. How optimistic.  
“Okaaay… Cool. How about Motobuchi-kun?” Yoshimi asked, batting her long lashes innocently at her class President.   
Motobuchi’s cheeks turned a little pink, but his voice remained cool. “Absurd. I am not a delinquent and would obviously not do anything of the sorts. Even the insinuation is…-“  
“- Pleaseee, Motobuchi-kun! Just show us and then we’ll ask someone else!” Yoshimi pouted, still batting her eyelashes.  
“Fine, fine. Though I do not appreciate this…” Motobuchi said dryly, lifting up his bag to comply. Once he opened the top of it, he froze.

Sakurai eagerly peaked over his shoulder, breaking out in a huge grin when he saw the contents.  
“No fucking way! The nerd really did it!” he roared, clapping his hands together. “That’s great!”  
Kaeda leaned closer now too, furrowing her brows. Yoshimi’s pink panties were the first thing you could see once you peaked into the bag; the photo covered with her lock of hair was the next.  
“Man,” Hiroshi gasped, pretending to be horrified. “You’re like, fuckin’ stalkin’ her?! This is so fuckin’ creepy!”  
Yoshimi covered her mouth with her hands, shaking her head in fake disbelief.  
“No way… No way…” she whispered, trying to force herself to cry in horror. However, unlike her friend Mitsuko, she did not possess this talent flawlessly. “T-This can’t be…”  
“Motobuchi-kun, I think you should come with me to the principal’s office,” Kaeda said coldly, her lips tightened as she was clearly horrified too, but for real.

Motobuchi, too stunned to say much up until this point, slowly turned bright red.  
“This is preposterous! They did this. This is a bad prank. They did this!” he insisted, his voice increasing desperate as Kaeda nudged him to get on his feet.  
“Give Yahagi-san her possessions back before we go… And her… Hair, too…” Kaeda said, flinching a little at the absurdity of the situation.  
“Don’t you think the principal should see like, the evidence?” Yoshimi suggested weakly, avoiding looking at Motobuchi. She felt _slightly_ bad, but mostly, she was having fun.  
Kaeda pulled her phone out of her back-pocket, as she had Motobuchi empty his bag. She sorted out the contents belonging to Yoshimi.  
“I will photograph them,” she said simply. She raised a brow as she saw the Dior nail polish too. “This was… You got this from my desk?” she asked Motobuchi, not looking at him as she snapped a couple of photos.  
“Outrageous! I did no such thing! I did nothing!” Motobuchi was now almost yelling. Hiroshi raised his brows.  
“Dude, calm down. You’re fuckin’ scarin’ Yahagi even more!” he said, pointing to the girl.

Kaeda eventually led the infuriated Motobuchi out of the room, leaving the students to erupt into loud chatter amongst themselves.  
“Can you believe that?! He’s like the class Pres!”  
“What a damn perv! Wooow!”  
“That’s so creepy but sorta fuckin’ hilarious?!”  
The remaining assistants attempted to calm the groups, but no one was left to supervise Yoshimi and Hiroshi’s. Sakurai and Matsumoto were talking amongst themselves, and Yoshimi began packing her bag, a smirk now on her face.  
Hiroshi laughed.  
“Fuuuck. He might even get expelled, y’know! That’s what he gets for callin’ us ugly and shit!”  
“Uhm, well. _Stupid_ ,” Yoshimi corrected him. “But yeah, totally! What a rush!”  
Picking up her underwear, she considered it for a moment, before throwing it in Hiroshi’s face instead of packing it. Hiroshi let out a yelp and fell backwards on his chair, scrambling on the floor as if he had been attacked.

Once he emerged back up, his face was bright red, and he held the underwear far away from himself, barely pinching the corners of it with two fingers.  
“V-very funny,” he stammered, throwing it back at her. “You freak! I don’t want your dirty underwear! I ain’t fuckin’ Motobuchi!” he joked.  
Yoshimi laughed, putting it back down in her bag and taking her seat.  
“Did you really start the fire with a _mirror_?” she needed to know, her voice hushed to keep anyone from overhearing. “How did you do that?!”  
Hiroshi grinned proudly.  
“Nah, with my lighter. But I put the mirror there so it wasn’t too obvious, y’know? Like, the curtain wouldn’t just erupt randomly!”  
“Wow,” Yoshimi said, her smile softening. “That’s kinda smart?”  
“Why’d ya sound all surprised and shit?” Hiroshi huffed, pretending to be offended, but Yoshimi noticed his small smile.

She smiled too, looking down at the one item in her hand that she had not packed away in her bag; the nail polish.  
“You know,” she said gently, before looking back up at him with a playful smile. “The _best_ thing about this…”  
“Yeah?” Hiroshi asked curiously, looking back at her.  
“Now I can totally do your nails! Come here!”

Laughing at Hiroshi’s desperate protests as he squirmed away from her, Yoshimi pushed away the small voice in her head that tried to convince her that they might not have gotten away with their revenge just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, Motobuchi. You don't deserve this.


	4. Eggs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Motobuchi taken care of, Hiroshi is still set on pranking the teacher too. Yoshimi is having doubts about both.

It was Wednesday, and the third day of supplementary classes. Yoshimi thought she might be running a little late as she rushed through the door, but at least Kaeda was not present yet. Hiroshi however, was, and he had reclaimed his window spot at the back.  
“Psst,” he grinned to her as she went to join him. “Just wait until Kaeda gets here! You’re gonna die when ya see!”  
“What?” Yoshimi asked, squinting slightly. Had Hiroshi gone ahead and planned something without her?  
“Just wait, just wait! I swear, it’s fuckin’ brilliant!”  
Looking a little hesitant, Yoshimi took a seat next to him, dropping her bag to the ground.

“I had to stay longer yesterday, you know,” she whispered, glancing around. “The principal wanted to see me about the Motobuchi-thing. They were all like “Oooh do you wanna fill out a restraining order? We’re looking into legal repercussions. We just want you to feel safe” and shit like that!”  
The seriousness she had experienced at the principal’s office had made her feel a little nervous and almost a little guilty, but she had managed to not give herself away. Hiroshi on the other hand, did not seem to feel guilty at all as she told him this.  
“Sick! Ya mean he’s goin’ to jail and shit? Man, he’s gonna be someone’s bitch so fuckin’ fast!” he laughed, slamming his hands against the table in pure joy.

“Right, so, he’s like suspended from his position as the assistant and stuff, but they said they dunno yet if they’ll do a full expulsion yet –“  
“- So ya mean he _has_ to miss Summer school? Poor bastard!” Hiroshi rolled his eyes, trying to compose his laughter as Kaeda entered the classroom. “Shhh. It’s happenin’…!”  
Yoshimi turned her attention to the front of the classroom, where Kaeda greeted them good morning. For once the teacher sent Yoshimi an almost sympathetic smile, probably feeling bad for the event she went through the day before.  
_Maybe she’s kinda nice… Oh no, what if Kuronaga-kun’s revenge is like, lighting her on fire?! I don’t want that!  
  
_

Yoshimi sent a nervous glance in Hiroshi’s direction, about to ask him about it, when Kaeda turned quiet. She looked down at her chair, picking up an object.  
“Why is there a pair of _scissors_ on my chair?” Kaeda asked coolly, looking out towards the class.  
Hiroshi groaned quietly in disappointment.  
“Fuuck. She was supposed to sit on them! Like pins, but like, hardcore!” he complained, shaking his head. Yoshimi’s eyes widened.  
“That’s crazy! You psycho! Wait, how would that even work? It wouldn’t even do anything! It’s not like the blades are even, like, pointing up?!” she whispered back to him, flabbergasted by his childish and ridiculous idea.  
Hiroshi turned a little red. “It could’ve fuckin’ worked! Have some faith!”  
“What’s your next plan, dumdum? You’re gonna tie her shoe laces together so she stumbles, but with like, barbed wire?!” Yoshimi wanted to know, pouting.

Hiroshi blinked at her.  
“What, I’m takin’ it too far? Your plan got the nerd fuckin’ kicked out, probably forever! His future is probably fuckin’ destroyed!” he mumbled, causing Yoshimi to turn quiet.  
_He’s right… At least, Kuronaga-kun’s plans are so stupid, they don’t even work. My great plans actually cause real damage…  
_“Should we like, come clean or something?” she whispered, her tone softer now, revealing her insecurities about the situation.  
Now it was Hiroshi’s turn to send her a stunned expression.  
“Fuck no. Yahagi, he had it comin’! Your plan was fuckin’ awesome and badass. And hilarious! I just wanna get back at Kaeda somehow too but I guess I ain’t as good as this plan shit as ya are…” his voice died out, before he turned silent.  
He pretty much confirmed Yoshimi’s suspicions that he was not the big schemer of his group, and she smiled slightly too him.  
“You think so?”  
“Yeah, f’sure! You’re real smart and shit. Ya probably don’t even need any assistant here to pass these lame classes,” he said with a nod, causing her smile to widen.  
“Thanks…”

They did not bring the Motobuchi-thing up for the rest of the day, as Hiroshi could tell it made Yoshimi feel somewhat guilty. Instead, he was very slowly brainstorming what he could do to Kaeda. Yoshimi felt it was less about revenge at this point, and more about Hiroshi being bored and needing to entertain himself somehow. She shut down every idea involving fire ( _“You already did fire yesterday! They’ll catch on!” “Yeah, they will… Catch on fire!” “Kuronaga-kun, no! Try a different angle!”),_ which led to the surprising category of flooding instead, and then somehow, a gas leak.  
“You’re gonna kill us all!” Yoshimi complained, smacking his arm playfully. Hiroshi snickered.  
“It won’t be real gas! I’ll let out a fuckin’ deadly fart or some -  
“- _Ew_! No! I’m switching seats!”  
  
Snapping his fingers, Hiroshi looked like a light finally went on in his head.  
“I got it! I fuckin’ got it. Okay, no one dies –“  
“- Great start!”  
“It does kinda smell like shit -  
“- Uhm… Oh…”  
“- But only for Kaeda!”  
Yoshimi looked at him curiously now. “How…?” she asked, needing more details before she could approve of this plan.  
“So, y’know my eggs-“  
“- Mhhm. Obviously…”  
“I take off some pieces of them and shove them under her chair’s cover! In a few days, it’ll be so fuckin’ stinky, and she won’t have any clue why! And it’ll be like she shat herself or somethin’!” Hiroshi finished proudly.  
Yoshimi stared at him for a moment, before cupping her hands in front of her mouth to laugh somewhat quietly.  
“Kuronaga-kun! That’s… Creative?” she laughed, hoping she did not raise too much suspicion.

Though “creative” was hardly very detailed feedback, nor the word Hiroshi had hoped to hear, he still looked even prouder as she said that.  
“Right?! We just need like, another distraction for her while I do it. Since ya won’t let me do fires anymore, it’s gotta be something new. Maybe ya can ask her to help our group and shit since we don’t have an assistant anymore, and then I do the ol’ bathroom trick?”  
Yoshimi nodded. “Yeah, sure, we can do that.”  
She was just pleasantly surprised his plan did not involve sharp objects.  
_  
_ Distracting Kaeda proved pretty easy, as she was more than happy to give Yoshimi some extra help. Again, Yoshimi could not help but feel a little bad as the teacher was being so nice to her now that she thought she was a stalking victim. Hiroshi did not even have to ask for permission to leave, as Kaeda focused all her attention on Yoshimi.

“How do you feel, Yahagi? I hope you feel safer today,” she said softly.  
“Mhm. Yeaah. It was a little scary, but I don’t think Motobuchi-kun would ever hurt me. You know, I’m pretty cute and stuff, so boys fall for me all the time…” Yoshimi responded with a sigh.  
Kaeda nodded. If she found the statement odd, she hid it well, as she still just looked at her with sympathy.  
“That does not mean they have the right to do what he did, though. You know that, right? It’s okay to be upet about it,” Kaeda continued.  
“I guess I’m just saying, I can’t totally blame him either… I mean, look at me… “ Yoshimi rambled on, until Hiroshi re-joined their little group.  
“Sorry, sensei! I went to the bathroom. Hope that’s cool and shit,” he said casually, giving Yoshimi a look that said _I did it!_  
  


When Kaeda left, Yoshimi leaned closer.  
“Well?!” she asked curiously. “Did no one see you?!”  
Hiroshi chuckled. “Like, a ton of them watched me do it! But they all just tried not to laugh and shit. They’re all team Hiro!” he reassured her with a thumbs up.  
It made sense that no one in class would rat him out; they were all slackers or delinquents or both, anyway. So a prank on a teacher was probably welcomed, Yoshimi figured.  
“Niiice. It’ll be hilarious to see her react to it on… Friday? Monday? Whenever the smell kicks in,” Yoshimi giggled, offering him a high five. He returned it, looking very content with himself.

Opening his bag, Hiroshi pulled out another hard-boiled egg.  
“This prank made me hungry,” he admitted, about to shove it in his mouth, as he glanced at Yoshimi. “Or like… Do ya want a bite?” he asked, offering her the egg.  
_Ew. Absolutely not,_ Yoshimi thought, looking at it with horror. It was already peeled and everything, just rolling around in his bag…  
Still, he looked at her with such an unusually soft expression, and this offering clearly meant a lot to him. Her lips twitching in a small smile, Yoshimi reached her hand out to accept the egg.  
“Yeah. Thanks… That’s nice of you, Kuronaga-kun,” she said, lifting it up to her lips.  
“Wait!” Hiroshi called out, swiftly pulling a second egg out. Yoshimi wondered if they would just keep coming; if his entire bag was literally filled with eggs. “We gotta do a cheers,” he said, knocking his egg softly against Yoshimi’s.  
Laughing, she knocked it back. “Cheers! To us!”  
Biting into the egg (Hiroshi shoved his entire one straight into his mouth), she chewed it curiously.  
_Oh no. It’s actually pretty good… I could get used to this..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheers?


	5. Justice for Motobuchi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An investigation raises some questions about the stalker-incident.

“You know, this? Not bad. Not bad at all,” Yoshimi mumbled, chewing on an entire egg that had been offered to her by Hiroshi. It was a couple of hours into their Thursday lesson, which she was beginning to understand meant _pre-lunch_ to Hiroshi. Today, she had to follow his method and shove the whole egg into her mouth, as her hands were busy painting his nails under the desks. It did feel like kind of a waste of the very expensive Dior nail polish to put it on him, who hardly appreciated it, but it was not like she had _paid_ for it anyway.  
“Won’t I look gay?” Hiroshi mumbled uncertainly between his own messy chewing.   
“No, you’ll look totally fab! See, it has some glimmer and everything! It’s sooo pretty,” Yoshimi insisted, lowering her head down to blow onto his fingers, which was especially hard since she had so much food in her mouth.  
“If ya say so…” Hiroshi said sceptically, keeping an eye out for Kaeda.

They did not have to worry for long; class was interrupted as someone knocked, and a man both Yoshimi and Hiroshi immediately recognised as the principal, Mr Hayato, entered. Kaeda stood to greet him and the two spoke quietly amongst themselves, before he gestured for her to follow him out to the hallway. She went to quickly pick something up from her drawer, before she joined him outside.  
“Ya think Kaeda’s in some sort of trouble? Maybe it’s ‘bout the ass stench?” Hiroshi snickered childishly, referring to his prank from the day before.  
Yoshimi giggled too, though she had a hard time believing this was the case.  
“Naah. Probably just some teacher emergency. Like maybe someone’s having too much fun in the hallway somewhere?” she suggested, staring the second coat on Hiroshi’s left hand.

Mr Hayato and Kaeda entered the room again after only a couple of minutes, and this time, Kaeda’s face had a rather sour expression. Yoshimi, who had peaked up at them as the door opened, also noticed her eyes were glued to her and Hiroshi.  
 _Oh oh. Now what?_  
She hurried to put the cap back on her nail polish, shoving it down in her bag to hide the evidence of their antics (though Hiroshi’s freshly painted nails were probably a dead giveaway anyway), and instead pretended to bury her head down into the worn-out grammar book they had been given.  
“Fuck,” Hiroshi whispered under his breath, causing Yoshimi to glance up again. Following the adults into the room, was Motobuchi. He looked a little pale, but mostly, he just looked… pissed off.  
“Oh, shit,” Yoshimi whispered too, feeling like they were somehow about to be totally busted.

“Yahagi-san, Kuronaga-kun,” Mr Hayato’s firm voice spoke, causing everyone to look from the two students, to the teachers. “Will you step outside with us for a moment?”  
Kaeda had her arms crossed, her eyes still glued to them, as Yoshimi and Hiroshi exchanged glances.  
“Ya think they know? Like, they just believe Motobuchi ‘cause he’s a nerd and rich and never cause any shit? That’s fucked up!” Hiroshi mumbled, getting to his feet.  
“Yeah, but… It’s also true though,” Yoshimi responded equally quietly, getting up as well. They did as they were told, trying as much as possible to keep cool. Hiroshi did actually look like he was not too stressed, but Yoshimi could feel herself getting nervous. They probably would not get away with this one.

“Sup?” Hiroshi asked boldly, placing his arms behind his head in a very relaxed manner, leaning against the wall in the hallway. It was strangely quiet out there, and Yoshimi held her breath as she looked up at the others. Her eyes landed on Motobuchi, who seemed like, just like herself, he was fighting his nerves. Yoshimi figured he had a lot relying on how this conversation turned out.  
“We have had several conversations with Motobuchi-kun these last two days, about the _incident_ Tueday. The one involving Yahagi-san,” Mr Hayato began, nodding briefly to Yoshimi, who forced herself to meet his eyes. “And a lot of things are not adding up. First of all, Motobuchi has never been involved in any previous incident, whilst not necessarily telling of anything, means that this is highly unexpected, to say the least. Second, Motobuchi-kun pointed out he has had no occasions to be close enough to Yahagi-san to cut her hair or take her underwear. He also points out that in the photograph found in the bag, Yahagi-san is looking directly into the camera, which means it would be odd that she did not notice Motobuchi-kun taking it. Finally, Motobuchi-kun mentioned the curtain catching on fire right before Yahagi-san happened to discover her missing belongings, was _highly_ suspicious. And we checked the mirror that was claimed to cause the fire…”  
Kaeda held the mirror up, and Yoshimi realized this is what she had picked up from the drawer.  
“There’s no mark on it at all. If the mirror had started the fire, it would have left a burn mark,” Kaeda finished off the speech. “So the fire was set with a different method.”  
“Like a distraction,” Motobuchi added in coldly.

Yoshimi and Hiroshi remained quiet. They did not even look at each other, but Yoshimi hoped he could understand what she was trying to communicate through telepathy.  
 _Just like, don’t say anything! Or say something but… Deny it…!  
_ “So what? What’re ya sayin’?!” Hiroshi spat out, letting his arms drop to his sides now. His relaxed pose was beginning to falter.  
“Well, to be frank, Kuronaga-kun, we think that either you or Yahagi-san, or both, did this as some kind of prank. Motobuchi-kun pointed out the two of you seem like quite good friends, and that you would have had the opportunity to cut her hair or take a photo or steal from her, if you were ever over at her house –“  
“- What?! He’s never been to my house! I got a boyfriend!” Yoshimi interrupted Mr Hayato, causing Hiroshi to roll his eyes with a grunt.  
“Either way. A lot more opportunity than Motobuchi-kun would ever have had, anyway,” Mr Hayato concluded.  
“And you were by my desk when the fire broke out, Yahagi-san,” Kaeda pointed out. “Where I had the nail polish. Which was also found in the bag. So, the evidence is stacking up…”  
  
All eyes were now at Yoshimi, and she could feel herself get cold. Usually when she got caught shop-lifting or something, she would start crying and give the stuff back, and it would turn out fine. Only once had the police been called, but then they had just cried to _them_ instead, and been let off.  
 _Being this cute is really a blessing…  
_ But if she burst into tears now, it would be a total admission of guilt, and she had no idea what the consequences would be. Suspension? Expulsion? Would they like, get her arrested for framing Motobuchi of stalking?!  
Before Yoshimi could even say something, Hiroshi cut in.  
“’Kay, fine. You’re right. I did it and shit,” he said dryly, shrugging. The eyes went from Yoshimi to him, and Yoshimi’s own eyes also followed suit. She felt her mouth drop open.  
“You did it alone?” Kaeda asked, sounding rather sceptical, but Hiroshi quickly nodded.  
“Yeah. It was s’posed to be a prank on Yahagi, but then everyone took it so fuckin’ seriously, and I didn’t know how to come clean ‘bout it. So I guess I just let it play out or whatever.” He turned his head towards Yoshimi. “Sorry ‘bout that. I know it really freaked ya out, thinkin’ ya had a real stalker.”

_You’re lying!_ Yoshimi thought. _You’re lying and you’re doing it so smoothly! But I can’t just let you…  
_ “N-No, wait a minute,” Yoshimi said weakly, but her voice drowned out as Mr Hayoto spoke firmly.   
“Collect your things and follow me to my office, Kuronaga-kun. We’re going to have a long talk about this.”  
Hiroshi nodded, giving Yoshimi a long look before turning to enter the classroom. Yoshimi was left outside with the others, trying her hardest to make her voice work again.  
“No, okay, l-listen,” she stammered. “It wasn’t just Kuronaga-kun, it… We both played the prank on Motobuchi-kun. I’m sorry and stuff, but it’s true, we did! We’re bros and we –“  
“- I understand you want to protect your friend, Yahagi-san,” Mr Hayato interrupted her, raising his hand. “But the look on your face when he confessed told me you really knew nothing of the situation. We will take into account that this was not a real stalker incident and that you were never in danger, but letting Motobuchi-kun take the fall for it is still serious. Why don’t you go back inside, and we will handle the rest.”  
Yoshimi wanted to keep defending Hiroshi, to explain that her look of surprise was due to him taking the fall for her, not because she had no idea about the prank, but Kaeda hushed her away so quickly, she had no time. She only briefly passed Hiroshi as he exited the room again.  
“Kuronaga-kun…” she whispered, her voice trembling.  
Hiroshi winked at her, not looking too bothered. Reluctantly, Yoshimi walked back to her desk, feeling like the worst person in the world.

Without Hiroshi, every minute felt like hours as Yoshimi stared straight ahead, unable to focus on anything. Being unable to focus in school was of course not uncommon to her, but it somehow felt worse than usual. She sent occasional glances out towards the courtyard, thinking how much being locked in here for another couple of weeks would suck without having her new friend with her.  
As she did one of these occasional glances, she noticed Hiroshi walking away from the main entrance and towards the school gates, his bag thrown over his shoulder and his pace steady.  
Without thinking, Yoshimi slammed the window open, earning a few jumps from the classmates closest to her.  
“Kuronaga-kuuuun!” she called dramatically out of the window. Hiroshi stopped, turning back to look at her. “Wait up, okay! I’m coming!”  
“Yahagi-san, what are you –“ Kaeda began, but before she could finish, Yoshimi had grabbed her bag and quickly headed towards the door. She had made the decision the second she saw Hiroshi, and now, she figured there was no going back.  
“I’m sorry, Sensei, I can’t… I’m just so… bored!” she blurted out, earning a few surprised chuckles, as Kaeda stared at her in disbelief. Giving her teacher an apologetic smile, Yoshimi tuned around and ran towards the schoolyard.

Hiroshi was still there waiting, smiling uncertainly at her.  
“The fuck happen? They kick ya out too?” he asked, squinting due to the strong sun.  
“No. I kinda kicked myself out,” Yoshimi giggled, before turning more serious. “Wait, you’re not like, expelled or anything, are you?!”  
“Nah. Just have to miss one week of this shit. What a fuckin’ tragedy, huh?” Hiroshi grinned, waiting for her to reach his side before they both started walking together.   
“Why is that _punishment_ better than like, any reward? Well, if you’re not going for a week, then I’m not either! It already sucks without you and it’s been like, an hour!” Yoshimi complained, nudging him softly. She thought Hiroshi looked oddly content at this statement.   
“Fuck yeah, now we can finally enjoy the summer!” he chimed in.  
“So what should we do?” Yoshimi asked, smiling brightly to him. Hiroshi’s cheeks flushed a little, as he sent her a quick look, before looking away again.  
“Errr. We?” he repeated, not expecting her to want to lay any plans with him. Yoshimi nodded eagerly.  
“Yeah, of course! It’s _our_ Summer now!” she insisted. “Ohhh, I know. Let’s go to the ice cream parlour!”  
Hiroshi smiled slightly, giving a small nod too. “Yeah, that sorta sounds cool…”

“Oi, asshole!” someone called out to them. Hiroshi and Yoshimi both looked to the source of the noise, seeing Ryuhei Sasagawa staring at them with confusion. “The fuck are ya goin’? Is that school shit over already?!”  
“Fucker!” Hiroshi yelled back at him, and Yoshimi had to snicker at the fury in his voice. “I get kicked out and _now_ ya show up?!”  
“Kicked out?! It’s been four days! The fuck did ya do?!” Ryuhei yelled back, equally angry.   
“None of your business! Ya should have been there to see it! ‘Nyway, me and my new best bro are gonna get ice cream now, so fuck off!” Hiroshi huffed, reflexively grabbing Yoshimi’s arm. She was still laughing, but tried to contain herself.  
“Ice cream? Fuck, that sounds better. I’ll just join ya guys –“ Ryuhei started, changing the direction of his walk, before Hiroshi yelled once again.  
“The hell ya are! I had to suffer through days of that torture, now it’s your turn! B’sides, Yahagi is so much cooler than any of ya!”  
  
Yoshimi let Hiroshi drag her away, as Ryuhei cursed behind them, clearly regretting his choice of showing up _today_ of all days. Yoshimi on the other hand, thought it was the perfect day for him to appear. Any sooner, and she might not have gotten a chance to get to know Hiroshi the way she did.  
And for some reason, that felt like it would have been a great shame.   
_As long as my hair never catches on fire, we're good... Very good._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Justice was served, kind of.


End file.
